Evening Standard Comment: The stand-off on Greek debt is still explosive

Today's €60 billion of European Central Bank loans to Greek banks is a temporary lifeline — but no solution to the underlying crisis. Yesterday’s bad-tempered meeting between Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis and German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble left the stand-off over Greece’s debt unchanged. Mr Varoufakis, of the Left-wing Syriza party, which won last month’s Greek election, has this week been touring European capitals to drum up support for his party’s demands. It wants relief on Greece’s debt to international lenders — the country received bailouts totalling €240 billion (£179 billion) in 2010-12 — and an end to the austerity imposed by the “troika” of the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the ECB.

But yesterday Mr Schäuble echoed Chancellor Angela Merkel’s position that debt relief or a loosening of conditions such as spending cuts is impossible. In theory, the lenders hold all the cards: Greek government debt has junk status and the country has to borrow to survive. Some commentators are even dismissive of the dangers of a “Grexit” from the euro: Greece’s economy is small, and to some extent markets have already priced in such a possibility. There is probably more pain ahead for Greece.

In truth, however, such a blow to the euro could have deeply unpredictable effects on market confidence. The real issue is the economic direction of the eurozone and the failure of German-imposed austerity to kick-start growth. In France, Italy and Spain there is deep resentment over austerity, as well as simmering public debt crises. A Greek-driven euro emergency could quickly ratchet up southern Europe’s sovereign debt crisis afresh, quite aside from keeping the eurozone mired in economic stagnation. That would be ominous for Britain and other countries outside the euro — and worse news for the frugal Germans than compromising with the Greeks now.

Fighting FGM

On this, International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, the failure this week of a court case against a doctor accused of FGM should not deter those campaigning to end this barbaric practice. The case against Dr Dhanuson Dharmasena, who had re-stitched the labia of a Somalian woman after she gave birth, was deeply flawed: this was clearly not FGM, and Dr Dharmasena should never have been prosecuted. Yet the “cutters” and the parents and community figures who enlist them continue their appalling work, both in this country and abroad.

Those African and Middle Eastern communities must be the target for education and enforcement here, while new rules will be brought in to ensure that GPs report FGM cases, as hospital doctors already do. Meanwhile such work must also be redoubled in Africa. Today the Government has announced £45,000 for projects in Kenya, Nigeria and The Gambia — part of a £35 million fund to fight FGM over five years. FGM remains an appalling blight on the health and well-being of far too many women. It will be a long struggle to stamp it out — but it can be done.

Screen stars

This Sunday’s Bafta awards celebrate a fine year of films, with British titles and talent in strong contention. Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game), Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) and Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) are all tipped for awards. Britain’s film industry remains as creative as ever — and London is its heart.